You lose deals you should win. From the inside it’s hard to see why, let alone put it into words. So your story stays vague. And vague never wins.
I find the one thing that makes you the obvious choice – the thing you’ve gone blind to. Then I build it into the foundation everything else runs on, and stay until your revenue proves it.
Doubled our win rate from 30% to 60%. Cut time-to-close by 70%.
– Rami Darwish, CEO of Arrow Labs
You know that moment…
… when you find out about a deal after it’s been decided, and you were never in it?
… when a prospect says ‘you’re expensive’, because they have no idea why they’d choose you over the rest?
… when your rep says: “They went with [competitor]. They even admitted we’re technically better.”
… when your board expects growth, but you don’t trust your own forecast?
Just look at your win rate. It says a lot about your company: it’s your remarkability score. The good thing – the gap to 100% is your upside.
What happens when you claim that upside
Here’s what CEOs tell me six to nine months in:
Deal cycles that took 9 months take 3
Win rates double
Deal sizes grow 40%+
Same product. Same team. And that’s just the start.
The discounting stops too.
But you’ll know the real shift has happened when competitors back off the moment they see you’re in the deal.
Whether you’re a start-up or a well-established business, starting this journey with Ton has the power to change your business for good and for the better – not by 10 percent – but by 10x.
– Michiel Schipperus, CEO of Sana Commerce
Software scaleups I’ve worked with
Is this for you?
This works if you are running a sales-led software scaleup and:
There’s a board or PE owner expecting growth you’re not on track to deliver, and the clock is running.
You’re past €5M ARR, but growth has stalled
Nobody gives the same answer to ‘why us’
You’re tired of competing on price when you know you’re better
Not for you if:
You’re in cost-cutting or exit-prep mode — your owner wants margin, not growth
You’re still searching for product-market fit
You’re product-led rather than sales-led
You want quick fixes or growth hacks
You think a positioning document or workshop will fix it
Ton’s positioning expertise transformed our approach to the market. After the first full quarter, the time-to-close has improved by 30%. YOY we nearly doubled the number of won deals and improved the average deal size by 42%.
– Henk-Jan Onstwedder, General Manager Legal Software of Wolters Kluwer
The Remarkable Effect
After 30 years inside business software, I kept seeing the same pattern. Good companies stalling — not because their product wasn’t good enough, but because nobody could say what made it worth choosing.
And that inspired me to write a book on it.
Ten traits to become the must-have software company in your market.
I find your remarkable thing, build it into the foundation everything else runs on, and stay until your revenue proves it works. My fee is tied to your results.
We hit our highest revenue ever — with our smallest RevOps team. The workload is way less now, because we only onboard high-fit customers. Working with you was a highlight of 2024.
– Mark de Jong, CEO of Timewax
About Me
I’m Ton—son of a Dutch tulip farmer, now based in sunny Parcent, Spain.
I spent 26 years inside Unit4, always in the intersection of product, marketing, and sales. We had the better product, yet still often lost to Oracle, SAP and Microsoft. Win rates under 20%, discounting all the time, and often not even being invited.
Until we found what was remarkable about us, and when it mattered to customers. That’s when we became the only logical option for the right customers.
Nine years on my own since, watching hundreds of deals from the outside. Same pattern every time: the remarkable thing is already there. They just can’t see it themselves.
The biggest shift my clients describe isn’t the messaging. It’s conviction — and the guts that comes with it: go after bigger deals, ask the hard questions early, tell prospects what they can’t see themselves, say no when the fit is wrong.
Three beliefs that drive everything I do:
Real differentiation isn’t being better — it’s being the only option that makes sense.
The growth you’re missing is almost always already in the business. The lever is just hidden.
Sustainable growth comes from being indispensable to the right customers — not from chasing more leads.
If your product’s better but your win rate says otherwise — let’s find your remarkable thing.
How does your approach differ from traditional product positioning?
I find the one remarkable thing hidden in your business and stay until your revenue proves the positioning works. No fixed scope. No deliverables that die in drawers. Just results.
Do you work only with scaleups, not startups?
Yes. My approach works best for sales-led software scaleups past €5M ARR that have found product-market fit but can’t turn it into predictable growth. At that stage, finding your remarkable thing creates massive impact on win rates, deal sizes, and sales cycles.
What growth strategies work best for sales-led software scaleups?
Stop adding features and dropping prices. Start finding what actually makes your software business remarkable — then build your entire market strategy around it. That’s what creates compounding long-term growth — not chasing qualified leads that don’t convert.
How do you measure success with your product positioning engagements?
Shorter sales cycles. Higher win rates. Bigger deals. Lower customer acquisition cost. That’s how I measure every positioning engagement — and my fees are tied to these outcomes. I only succeed when your numbers move.
How does The Remarkable Effect framework improve revenue growth?
Every software scaleup has one remarkable thing hidden in plain sight. The framework helps you find it and turn it into compounding revenue growth across sales, product, and customer success — not through theory, but through transformation.
Would this also work for product-led growth (PLG) companies?
No. Product-led companies rely on self-service, free trials, and the PLG model to grow. My work is for sales-led software businesses where the growth bottleneck isn’t the product — it’s how the story gets told in every customer interaction. If your deals depend on your team explaining complex value to decision-makers, that’s where I create the remarkable effect.
How does positioning improve customer retention and reduce churn?
When you attract the wrong customers, churn follows. Better positioning means better customer fit — which improves retention rates, increases customer lifetime value, and turns your customer base into your best growth engine. The remarkable effect doesn’t just win new deals — it keeps the right ones.
What role does positioning play in entering new markets?
Most software companies entering new markets copy what worked before. But a new category needs a new perspective. I help you find what makes you remarkable in that specific market — so expansion becomes a strategic move, not a gamble.
How do you align messaging across sales, marketing, and customer success?
The biggest weakness in most software businesses isn’t the messaging framework — it’s that nobody uses it. I don’t hand you slides. I stay until your sales team can explain your value in 30 seconds, your marketing attracts ideal customers, and your customer success team retains them.
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After 30 years inside business software, I kept seeing the same pattern. Good companies 
